EDEN. Sir ]Rome' (1741-S4). An English baronet, the last proprietary Governor of land. Ile was the second son of Robert Eden, of 1\111(10.i-stone liall, Durham. The eldest brother inherited the baronetcy and seat in Parliament ; two brothers raised themselves to the peerage as Lord Auckland and lord Henley; another became auditor of Greenwich 'Hospital. and was the father of an admiral and a lieutenant-general, and a sister married Archbishop Moore, of Canter bury. Before he was sixteen. P,obert obtained a commission in the Boyal of Artillery; in 175s he was raised from cadet to ensign in the Coldstream Guards, nun] in 1702 he was promoted captain. He served in Germany during the Never Years' War, and soon after returning to England married the sister of Frederick, the sixth and last Lord Baltimore. His appointment as Governor of in 176ti was duo his family connection; hut after his arrival in June, 1709, he displayed tact and ability in the stormy times which he came upon. and endeared himself to the people by his prudence and kindli ness. The most serious controversy in which he held out against the people was that over the fees of public talkers. lu a proclamation of No vember 2-1. 1770, he asserted that it was his pre rogative to settle such fees, and although lie maintained his position until the institution of the Provisional Government, the colonists blamed only his advisers without becoming embittered against him. The death of Lord Baltimore in
September. 1771. undermined the Proprietary Government. for the loyalty of the colonists did not extend to the illegitimate son. Henry llar ford.who became the next proprietary, and dur ing the absence of their Governor, who went home to act as an executor of his brother-in-law's estate, great advances were made toward inde pendence. He remained iu the colony until dune 177O. when. Maryland having definitely com mitted herself to the principles of the Bev()lut ion, and having virtually declared the Proprietary Government at an end, he embarked on a British war-vessel. During his term as Governor he had assumed the role of apologist for the colony, and had believed in its loyalty to the end. Ile re turned to .Nlaryland in 1784, and died in Annapo lis. on September 2d of that year. Consult: Steiner. "Life and Administration of Sir Robert Eden," in the Johns Hopkins Unirersity Studi(s in Historical and Political Science, Sixteenth Nos. vii.-ix. (Baltimore. 1898).